The National Girls Week, which will be hosted at Jeppe High School in Johannesburg from 25-29 June as part of the SA Rugby Youth Weeks, will feature Under-16 and Under-18 teams battling it out at one venue in the same week in an exciting new development.

The U16 Girls Week, which started in 2011, returns this year after last year’s National Girls Week featured only U18 teams, meaning there will be non-stop action over the five days.

The U16 teams will kick off the competition on Monday, 25 June, and play their second round of matches on Wednesday, 27 June, while the U18’s will play on Tuesday and Thursday respectively. Both tournaments will conclude on Friday, 29 June, following a jam-packed day of rugby.

A total of 16 teams will battle it out in each of the competitions, with the National Girls U16 Week featuring the Blue Bulls, Boland, Border, Border Country Districts, Eastern Province, Free State, the Golden Lions, Griffons, Griquas, KwaZulu-Natal, the Leopards, Limpopo, the Pumas, South Western Districts and Western Province A and B teams.

The National Girls U18 Week, meanwhile, will see the Blue Bulls, Boland, Border, Border Country Districts, Eastern Province, the Leopards, Free State, Golden Lions, Griffons, Griquas, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, the Pumas, South Western Districts, Western Province and Zimbabwe battle it out for top honours.

Boland will meet the Free State, and Western Province B takes on Limpopo in the opening matches of the U16 National Girls Week respectively, while Border, who took top honours in the last U16 Week two years ago, will meet SWD in the final match of the day.

Hosts, the Golden Lions, meanwhile will go up against Eastern Province.

In the National Girls U18 Week, Western Province, who were the top team last season, will get the competition underway against SWD on the A Field, while the Leopards and Border CD will meet on the B Field.

Border, who met the Cape side in the final match last year, will take on Limpopo.

The fixtures for the last two rounds of each tournament will be determined by the previous day’s results.

The National Girls Week will run concurrently with the Learners with Special Education Needs (LSEN) Week in Vanderbijlpark.

These events will be followed by the U13 Coca-Cola Craven Week and U16 Coca-Cola Grant Khomo Week hosted at Hoërskool Diamantveld in Kimberley from 2 to 6 July, and the U18 Coca-Cola Craven Week and Cola-Cola Academy Week at Paarl Boys High from 9 to 14 July respectively.